Hope everyone had a beautiful and blessed, yet the holiday season is not over yet. It’s a lovely time of the year, yet we must be mindful that all the delicious food we eat can take a toll on our health.
Here are simple tips you can incorporate at any time to help you get through the party season:
1. Limit Alcohol Intake: Not easy… I know. Try to stick to water when not at a party or gathering. Moderation and give your liver a break from time to time.
2. Eat Foods That Heal: Certain foods help to detoxify and protect your liver. These include turmeric, garlic, green tea, avocados, berries, and leafy greens. The antioxidants in these foods help to protect your liver cells from damage.
3. Get Enough Sleep: Getting enough sleep is crucial for overall health; it’s essential for healing the liver. During sleep, your body produces a hormone called IGF-1 that helps to repair cell damage. So ensure you get 7-8 hours of restful sleep every night.
4. Reduce Stress Levels: Chronic stress can affect your entire body, including your liver. Try to find ways to relax and reduce stress in your life. This could include yoga, meditation, time in nature, a sauna session, or breathwork.
5. Exercise Regularly: Exercise has many bodily benefits, including improved liver function. It helps to increase blood flow and stimulates the production of enzymes that detoxify the body. Aim for 30 minutes of moderate exercise most days of the week.
These are just a couple of my favorite GO-To’s I follow to help my liver stay healthy.
It does not have to be complicated. Keep in mind that simple things can give your liver the support it needs to function optimally.
To your health 🌱
Maria
Improving Gut To support ThyroidHealing the thyroid is going to be a big needle mover for you if you have a Thyroid condition. The thyroid has an effect on nearly every process in the body from digestion to reproduction to mental health.
If your thyroid isn’t working properly you might be suffering. The beauty of functional medicine and being a health coach is being able to get to the root problem. With the thyroid, this means looking at the underlying health of the gut and the menstrual health, as well as stress and toxin exposures you might be exposed to.
Improving Gut Function
Eating a diet that supports the thyroid
Stress management
Detoxification
Improving Menstrual Health
Gut dysbiosis can interfere with proper thyroid function. When the gut bacteria is imbalanced, food isn’t well absorbed. Larger molecules are able to cross through the gut wall and inflammation in the body increases. This can provoke an immune response and can cause autoimmune conditions if left untreated.
If the client already had an autoimmune condition, GUt dysbiosis can make it worse.
♦ Include Fermented foods or probiotics
♦ Avoid sugar in all forms
♦ Increase Fiber intake
♦ Eliminate
♦ Gluten
Fermented foods and probiotics are beneficial for healing the gut. Fresh fermented food, such as sauerkraut, yogurt, kefir, and Kimchi can help shift the intestinal flora from the bad bacteria that can affect both the immune system and the thyroid, to the beneficial bacteria that can keep the gut in tip-top shape.
Try adding 1-2 tablespoons of sauerkraut or kimchi to each day. These foods may take a little getting used to but the benefits are worth it. Or you can even try to make your own fermented vegetables, which can be empowering and fun. The instructions are easy and can be found online on a number of websites.
As a reminder, prepared yogurts tend to have a lot of sugar and very little bacteria. Plain full-fat yogurt is always a better option or non-dairy.
PROBIOTICS are beneficial bacteria that help the gut repopulate the good microbes, and eliminate the bad ones.
People with low immunity have been found to have lower amounts of bacteria lactobacillus and Bifidus and higher amounts of opportunistic e-coli and prodiac bacteria. E Coli and prodigious species are often referred to as opportunistic pathogens because they only become pathogenic when the opportunity is just right. If they are outnumbered by probiotic bacteria they behave like good citizens of the gut. But in times when they outnumber the probiotics, they start damaging the gut wall leading to gut permeability.
This is why probiotics can be so helpful in supporting a client with an autoimmune thyroid disorder.
Probiotics come packed in capsules, liquids, and in yogurt.
Probiotics can have some side effects, such as diarrhea, nausea, bloating, and headache. It’s important that you start at a low dose of 10 billion colony forming units or CFU, and then work your way up to a higher dosage to avoid side effects.
It is not friendly to the gut. Eating sugar increases inflammation in the GU tract and shifts the balance in the gut bacteria. Harmful bacteria grow rapidly on a diet of sugar displacing the good gut bugs.
Over time insulin resistance can develop, where sugar is knocking on the door of the cells, but the cells are just ignoring it. The body then makes more insulin, but the sugar stays high. This high sugar, high insulin state can contribute to autoimmune diseases such as Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and Graves disease.
It also contributes to inflammation in the gut and brain and exhaustion of the adrenal glands and interferes with detoxification pathways. As you can see, it disrupts overall metabolism and wellbeing.
Sugar is hidden in a lot of foods that are not even sweet, such as tomato sauces and dressings. It is essential to take the time to learn to read labels and take the time in purchasing good quality food, not junk (avoid hidden sugars).
Your health is in your hands and making “smart” purchases at the grocery store is where it all starts.
There are 2 types of fiber: soluble and insoluble.
Soluble Fiber: dissolves in water and helps to keep the GU contents moving.
Insoluble Fiber: Insoluble fiber is more gritty. Scrubs the walls of the colon clean as it moves through.
You need a balance of both to keep good colon health.
A lot of foods have both soluble and insoluble fibers such as leafy green vegetables, fruits, oatmeals, and lentils.
Be mindful for a moment of the amount of fiber you are having in a day and try to work your way up to 40-50 grams per day.
I do not like the word “diet”. But I am referring to your daily intake of food.
You can better serve yourself by eliminating Gluten from your “diet” because it contributes to leaky gut and dysbiosis and autoimmune disease.
A KEY Factor in healing the thyroid is to avoid wheat and possibly any other grain products. Depending on you and your unique sensitivities.
FACT
Did you know that people with untreated celiac disease are 3 times more likely to have thyroid disease and it gets better when they eat a gluten-free diet, in fact, some people have even seen a complete remission in their autoimmune thyroid condition after removing gluten from their diet? Talk about healing from nutrition/ food as medicine.
This blog is for educational purposes only. This blog is not a substitute for professional care by a doctor or other qualified professional care. This blog is provided with the only understanding that it is not to replace medical or other professional advice or services.
Why Does The Food We Eat Matter?
When I was in engineering school, one of the subjects I loved most was chemistry, especially being in the lab. The pH scale was one of the very first things we reviewed in school. It definitely had to do with so many chemical reactions. Today, looking at our bodies and trying to understand how they work best, I come back to this same concept, pH.
The pH scale ranges from 0-14. The lower the number the less acidic is in the environment. 7 is considered neutral and anything higher than that is considered alkaline.
Our bodies are designed to flourish and thrive in an alkaline state. Foods, toxins, and environments that are not alkaline interrupt this. On the other hand, having our bodies in an alkaline environment can help reverse disease.
For instance, our blood works at an optimal pH of 7.4. If you’re consuming food, alcohol, or are exposed to other toxins that are affecting this, then the body will auto-compensate for this not to happen. The body will pull calcium from the bones to keep the pH in our blood within range, at the expense of exposing us to osteoporosis, lacking vitamin D, and/or generating kidney disorders.
Most of the time food that has 3 or 4 ingredients is alkaline. Always keep in mind that the fewer ingredients in the product, the less processed it is. Making it better for you. This is why it is truly important to read the ingredient list of the products you buy at your local grocery store.
Becoming alkaline is much more than just what we eat. When you start eating and taking care of the things that affect your pH an extraordinary effect will quickly come in. Things like anxiety, depression, body shaming, and negative thoughts will start to fade.
You will begin to fall in love with yourself. In doing so, you will definitely want to remove more substances and be more careful and smarter of your food choices. But, also you will want to remove anything you consider toxic; substances, people, relationships, amongst others.
Let’s Talk About Enzymes And Our Digestion
Enzymes are very important in the process of breaking down our food.
As an Engineer, I learned that enzymes “speed up reaction”, and guess what? It’s the same in our bodies. They speed up the breakdown of our food. They grab a polysaccharide and they chop it down into a monosaccharide, or they take a protein ball and they chop it down into amino acids, this is what enzymes do.
I see our enzymes as part of our digestive support system.
You first will find some enzymes in your saliva. You’ll find pepsin (which is an enzyme in the stomach). The big star of the show is the pancreatic enzymes. That comes in on the top of the small intestine, brush border enzymes. We have microbiome enzymes realized by the gut that are actually bacteria in order to free up some food for them. They also act as a symbiotic relationship inside of our gut, where they get nutrients and we get nutrients.
Our bodies produce our own enzymes, but for a number of reasons you might not make enough of them, lose the capacity to make them, and not get them there (in the stomach) in time.
There are times when your body is giving you just 70% of the enzymes your body needs to digest a meal, or maybe 50%, or 40%. This creates a whole cascade of events.
I think the biggest question would be if supplementing with enzymes would make me dependent on them or shut down my own internal production? Meaning your body would stop producing your own enzymes.
And after reading so much the answer is NO.
Anybody with any sort of bloating, pain, gas, constipation, diarrhea, or food sensitivities. All of these are large markers that you can have, indicating an enzyme deficiency or an enzyme malfunction happening.
But after mentioning all the different enzymes, the question you might ask yourself is, but where’s it at? Is it my stomach, the pancreas, small intestine, or the microbiome? And this is a complex question. I believe there is still not enough testing to discover this.
So if we can’t specifically identify where the problem is, we should buy a product or a supplement that will cover all the basics.
♦ Enzymes:
Pancreatic enzymes
Brush Border enzymes
Microbiome enzymes
This way whatever the issue is, it is taken care of.
♦ Minerals:
If it is a vegetarian it is going to be an EPO enzyme, this means an enzyme without its mineral.
A WHOLE enzyme is the type of enzyme produced by an animal, it is an enzyme with a mineral.
Most of the enzymes in the market do not have any minerals to turn “on”. So the biochemistry behind this is you are hoping by chance that you get the mineral from the food you eat so that the enzyme meets the mineral and the process can occur.
If your area of weakness is digestion you might want to try incorporating enzymes as a supplement and see how you feel. If the bloating, gas, and constipation stop, basically if you notice a big difference, it can be a game-changer!!!
Improve your Digestion by supporting your enzymes!
This blog is for educational purposes only. This blog is not a substitute for professional care by a doctor or other qualified professional care. This blog is provided by the only understanding that it is not to replace medical or other professional advice or services.
Process or Goal: What Is More Important?Most of my clients want to lose weight, but should they focus on the goal or the process to get to that?
With the same goal, you will find a group that successfully achieves it while others don’t, but “we all want to be at a healthy weight,” right?
What is it that makes a winner, not a loser then?
Getting to understand, apply and implement a system that will be sustainable for you and your lifestyle.
Let’s break this down into parts.
When you focus only on the goal, reaching the goal is only a momentary change. If you want, you can choose to “close” your mouth and lose those 3 pounds with the willpower and determination you will achieve, but what happens after that?
If you continue with the same habits as before, you will soon find yourself 3 pounds up again. Suppose you continue to cut down your caloric intake. In that case, you will wreak havoc on your hormones and become deficient in many nutrients…becoming weaker…
So, do you understand that you’re only setting yourself up to chase a result by only focusing on the goal itself? You are not taking the time to understand what was not working for you and what will help you thrive. It is like putting a temporary bandage on a scar but not taking care of curing it.
Goals restrict your happiness, “I will feel excited and comfortable after losing these pounds” This type of mindset is set for conflict.
Do you see this? How? Because it is result-dependent. You can have either a success: “I reached the goal, and I am happy!” or failed “I am a failure.”
Set your mindset on the process. Leaving out time, numbers, or prizes. A mindset focused on the process that takes the time to understand, implement, and cares about it, actually falls in love with it. Is a mindset that does not have to wait till something “works” to feel happy. This mindset feels satisfied, mindfully living the process.
In general, when focused only on goals, the biggest problem is that you are not set to succeed long-term.
The purpose of defining a plan is to become a one-time winner. The goal of building systems/processes is to care, learn and find the smart choices. You will not find this not restrictive, and the results will be sustainable throughout your life.
The mindset that genuinely focuses on the long-term does not focus on achieving goals. This is about endless small turtle steps and continuous improvement. Above all, “your commitment to the process is what will determine your progress.” ~ James Clear
I am not here just to give out a nutritional plan. In fact, that’s actually out of my scope of practice. This is something more complex, comprehensive, and interdisciplinary.
I teach you the importance of caring about your health and that this is a responsibility you and only you can do for yourself. It is even greater if we get the ripple effect of this on our children and friends.
I provide you with knowledge on what/how our bodies need to perform the best they can. I guide you to understand and put it into practice and find out what works for you. The beauty of this is that we are all different, what works for one might not work for another.
Let’s find your unique formula!
Understanding you are a human, a social-emotional being. Your choices have an impact on you, others, our planet, as our future generations.
“Life is not a rehearsal.” ~unknown
I seek that all my clients become mindful. We only have one life to live, and our bodies, mind, and souls are our vessels. You must understand the importance of good self-care, establish a healthy relationship with food, develop self-esteem, build or improve eating behaviors. I provide you with tools that will help you discover what helps you best.
I want you to be inspired, to believe, and trust yourself that things are achievable. It’s about enjoying life.
I want to empower you to take charge of your life in the best responsible way. Knowledge is power, use it and make smart choices!
Some habits can be the cause of getting in the middle of what you are trying to achieve. Other habits are the cause of someone getting really sick.
But other habits work like magic.
How?
You will find what you are looking for not only to achieve their objective but to make it sustainable in the long run. This is only possible if you aim to change habits. Implementing new habits might not be very easy at first, but the idea is that you fall in love with the process of doing so.
Change must and is integral; when you learn to think differently, you understand that a number will never define you as a person, and when you find that key, you can focus on what will help you achieve your goals.
Limiting beliefs and myths are tough to remove and can be challenging. If you are committed to the process, time won’t matter. You will eventually understand and settle for what makes more sense.
This is a different approach to the traditional caloric deficit diets. It’s supporting you in a way you are giving your adrenals and thyroid the support needed. Learning what makes you feel your best!
I am passionate about understanding what is stopping you from being where you want to be. Helping you by addressing the multiple edges involved in change, eating, movement, your behaviors, perseverance, discipline, all that is necessary to establish healthy, successful habits.
And all the motivation you need to achieve it!
If this is what you need, I am here to help you achieve it, ready to accompany you to achieve your goals.
Where Does Our Digestion Start?
If you answered “a thought,” that is correct! It’s like thinking, “mmm, I am going to be eating my dinner right now.”
It all starts with a thought that stimulates your brain to create a signal that reaches your gut. Your gut then starts producing more digestive enzymes, more hormones for digestion, and starts getting all of your digestive juices circulating.
Once you put the food in your mouth, you chew it up, and you swallow. The food then reaches your stomach, where it’s digested mechanically and biochemically. So, it is safe to say that the stomach acts as a grinder. There are acids and enzymes to help break things down, once it reaches the stomach.
As the food leaves the stomach and enters the small intestine, there is bile added to the mix which helps emulsify your fats. The primary job of the small intestine is to absorb nutrients. The small intestine lining also serves a role in defense. The large intestine is primarily absorbing water, forming stools, and housing your microbiome.
Simplistic terms on how we digest start and finish with a bowel movement. Or I might say, hopefully, it finishes with a bowel movement!
How Can Our Gut Really Impact Our Hormonal Health?
So many women whom I coach one-on-one just look at me with a glazed stare and ask, “Why are we talking about my gut when I am here to fix my PMS, PCOS, or thyroid issues? Why are we talking about this?”
Our gut acts like Grand Central Station for our entire body. This means it is intimately connected with every other cell in our body’s system. This also includes the hormonal system, the detoxification system, the immune system, the neurological system, and the cardiovascular system. Our gut plays a role in all of these systems.
In terms of hormonal health, I will give two big examples, particularly for women:
#1 – The Role of Estrogen and the Gut
The gut holds two of the five big organs that are in charge of detoxification: our liver and our large intestine.
Our liver is metabolizing and neutralizing detoxifying estrogen. So, the liver filters out all of the used and spent estrogen, while neutralizing and sending it to the large intestine for us to poop out. So, estrogen is removed from our bodies, via pooping it out.
If you are not pooping every day, that means your spent estrogen is sitting in your stool. The large intestine has a blood supply and if the stool is just sitting there and not being expelled, a lot of these compounds get reabsorbed into the body and they return back to the liver.
With the liver dealing with today’s “matter,” while already having dealt with yesterday’s estrogen, and estrogen from two days ago… it has no choice but to do it all over again. This can impact and exponentially grow estrogen dominance.
PMS, acne, endometriosis, PSCO, and migraines are all estrogen dominance symptoms or conditions women might face. All of these things can be immensely reduced, just by simply pooping every day.
Estrogen is a huge piece in terms of gut health and hormonal fusion.
#2 – Thyroid Hormone
About 20% of your T4 is converted to the active form T3 via the activity of your microbiome.
It is the vast colony of beneficial organisms that are housed in the large intestine. If we have a microbiome that is not healthy, robust, or missing a good diversity of strains or is infected with a pathogen, overgrown with opportunistic bacteria or yeast, it’s arguable that the conversion via the microbiome becomes compromised.
Therefore, if you do not have other great conversion sites on other conversion cells, you can potentially have a “fake” hypothyroid state induced in the body.
If you lose 20%, the body will likely compensate, because it is excellent at doing so. The body is absolutely amazing at finding ways to make things work. But, let’s say you are super stressed, oversleeping, or not eating as well or normally do. That 20% can be a big connection.
We spend close to $1 billion on laxatives alone! Isn’t that crazy? This includes over-the-counter and prescription. I remember when I used to buy gum and Metamucil. Crazy!
Then I realized with the right amount of water, movement, and magnesium glycinate intake, my constipation was taken care of.
We should all pay attention to our microbiome, but particularly if you have
Hashimoto’s or any type of autoimmune disease. Particularly if there are any Gastro-Intestinal (GI) symptoms present. It is very important to maintain a healthy and robust Microbiome!
It would be beneficial to understand and know if you have Dysbiosis. There is a test available performed by your doctor to determine this.
It’s any type of imbalance of the microbiome – lack of good bacteria, while pathogens are present. With opportunistic, fast-growing bacteria (because flora is low), there is a translocation of bacteria, amongst others.
When dysbiosis is present, it often induces a greater than normal inflammation in the lining of the GI tract. This inflammation increases intestinal permeability (aka “leaky gut”).
This results in the mixing of many ways between your immune system, foods, and bacteria. In return, creating more inflammatory molecules signaling other molecules that there are molecules that do not belong there. Eventually, what can happen is that the immune system will make antibodies against our own tissue. For example, our thyroid being one, because protein structures are redundant. So, a lot of foods we eat actually look very similar to our own native tissue. Our immune system makes a mistake – it produces an antibody instead of doing it to food, unfortunately finding its way to our own tissue. A very strong reason to avoid dysbiosis, don’t you think?
*This blog is for educational purposes only. This blog is not a substitute for professional care by a doctor or other qualified professional. This blog is provided with only the understanding that it is not to replace medical or other professional advice or services.
MYTHS About The Sun And Our SkinThe summer calls for me to be outside.
I was in the south of Spain visiting my sister. The sun there was just amazing. It rained so much this summer in Connecticut that the sun was calling my name.
The sun definitely sets my mood, it helps me be present. It allows me to step away from work. I am the pool in Malaga, drinking mate and reading or maybe walking down the boardwalk, or on the beach. It is so unique, so energizing and I am so grateful for it.
Enjoying the weather outside means taking care of my skin. Not what I used to do in my teens, no sunscreen, but I have taken the time to fully understand and investigate this matter.
NOT True! According to the Environmental Working Group, they have reviewed sunscreen and have done a ton of research. They have noticed that skin cancer has risen despite the increase of sunscreen. In fact, EWG states that every major public health authority has concluded a study that does not support the claim that sunscreen reduces cancer rates.
But listen, even WORSE!
Most chemical-based sunscreens have been linked to hormone disruption. One of the things that concern me the most is Oxybenzone. This chemical, along with other sunscreen chemicals, passes through our skin into our bloodstream. Oxybenzone is a hormone disruptor, and it can actually irritate the skin as well.
FACT
Oxybenzone has been found in 97% of the people in their urine, PLUS it has been found in Human breast MILK. We really should avoid generic chemical-based brands that you have probably used before because we did not know any better. Other things we should be conscious of when reading the list of ingredients are parabens and phthalates, these compounds greatly impact our endocrine system. They can interfere with reproduction.
Why you should say “NO” to fragrance?
Fragrance is synthetic. It is not a real natural form of fragrance. It is a chemical compound that makes up a fragrance giving it an artificial scent. This can often time trigger allergic reactions, headaches, and respiratory issues like asthma and again it can cause hormonal disruption.
This is false! By oils, I mean coconut oil, carrot oil since they have a naturally occurring SPF of 8 -24 which is great for moisturizing your skin. Reality is when we talk about the sun and its rays. These oils do not provide a wide spectrum, which means they are not blocking all the UV rays. This means you are getting more UVA & UVC rays which are more carcinogenic.
Not true! Let’s get clear on what SPF values refer only to UVP rays, not UVA or UVC. This is a problem while UVP rays may cause our skin to burn, UVA does not, but these are the rays that penetrate deeper into our skin, causing more harmful DNA damage. Many countries have banned high SPF because they are misleading. Letting users spend more time in the sun receiving a higher dose of UVA which is DNA damaging. So high SPF is a true marketing thing. I understand that 50 is really the highest you can go to.
This is not true! Do we need to go outside and get vitamin D exposure? YES! Is vitamin D necessary for cancer protection? Absolutely TRUE! Still, we need to protect ourselves from the rays of the sun that are harmful to us. It is important for us to be conscious of the time of the day we are exposing ourselves and how much time. It is true that in order to absorb vitamin D we need to be outside, exposing our skin, with protection. The amount of time you need varies on skin type. Be conscious and be responsible. Practice sun safety.
Yes and no…It all depends on the antioxidant. Some sunscreens include vitamin E and fruit extract. Sure these are helpful for the skin helping with anti-aging. When they have vitamin A in the form of Retinol Palmitate you will want to avoid it. This form of Vitamin A when it is exposed to sunlight might actually speed (increase) tumor development. They usually use this as a marketing strategy.
We should all be more conscious of what we are putting on our skin. Since our skin is our largest organ and chemicals get absorbed into our bloodstream impacting our health. There are a lot of hormone mimic chemicals in sunscreens. This is the reason you should do your research and find a brand you trust.
I LOVE GOING TO THE BEACH, it is one of my favorite places. When I see people applying these generic brands of sunscreen full of chemicals and then going into the water. It makes me really sad. All these chemicals in the ocean cause a lot of disruption, impacting the water and the life in it. I think most people are not even aware this is happening and that they are doing such harm. So it is not only what I put on my skin and how it affects my body and my health it is also how you are impacting the environment around you.
So here again choose SMART. Choosing better quality, by understanding and paying attention to what you are buying is not only important for our own safety but for our environment as well.
Tips on how to be SUN safety:
♦ Avoid midday exposure when the sun is strongest
♦ Avoid long periods of time
♦ Where long sleeves
♦ Use a hat
♦ Use sunglasses
♦ Use sunscreen with broad-spectrum protection
Note:
UV radiation increases free radicals in our bodies but antioxidants fight these free radicals. Guess what is a source of good antioxidants? YES! that is correct-your food. Your diet plays such an important role in sun safety- do not overlook it.
How much coffee should you be drinking?
The thyroid is shaped like a butterfly and it is positioned in the neck just above the collar bone, its normal size is about 2 inches long by 1 inch high.
The thyroid releases hormones directly into the bloodstream, where they can be carried throughout the entire body.
This gland sends out several different hormones.
T4 is the inactive form and also the most common, about 80% of the time this is what the thyroid is releasing into the bloodstream. T4 is referred to as the PROhormone – which means it does not do anything on its own. It needs to be converted into a usable form first.
T3 is the active version of the hormone.
Typically T4 is released and is then transformed in the body to T3 to be used as needed. To activate it the body has to cut T4 to convert it into T3
This small but powerful gland is responsible for:
♦Regulate HR
♦Blood pressure
♦Body temperature
When the thyroid is not working properly, In reality, most people also feel and experience the following
♦ Weight
♦ Fertility
♦ Menstruation
♦ Skin tone
♦ Energy levels
♦ Sleep
♦ Memory
♦ Digestion
If you have any of these symptoms your thyroid might be the reason please consult your health care practitioner.
When the thyroid isn’t functioning properly it impacts almost every woman’s organ in the body. This is because there are receptor sites of thyroid hormone in every cell in the body, which in terms means that thyroid hormones have some influence on the function of every cell and every tissue. That is a pretty big deal for such a tiny endocrine gland.
If you are suffering from Thyroid dysfunction, recovering Thyroid health will make a huge difference in your day-to-day life. You’ll be so happy and relieved as your weight stabilizes and your mood and energy come back to normal.
So, do your periods become regular. Your hair stops falling out and your skin becomes smooth and subtle again.
Iodine is a trace element that is required for making thyroid hormones.
Did you know that the cells of the thyroid are the only ones designed to absorb iodine? Most of this iodine comes from your diet.
♦ Kelp and other sea vegetables as Kombu and wakame
♦ Good quality organic dairy
♦ Seafood like scallops and shrimps
♦ Free-range eggs
♦ Navy beans
It is also found in iodized salt, but this is usually in processed foods which is usually not the best source.
As mentioned above, T3 is the active hormone, and there are receptors in every organ of the body.
The balance of T3 and T4 is carefully maintained through the Hypothalamus-Pituitary – Thyroid-axis (HPT axis)
When thyroid levels are low they broadcast a signal to the hypothalamus to start the cycle. The hypothalamus makes the Pituitary gland send out TSH. When thyroid levels become high enough the signal is cut. This cycle maintains a steady level of thyroid hormones in the bloodstream.
It sends signals to the thyroid TSH. Thyroid Stimulating Hormone is received by the thyroid delivering the message to make more thyroid hormone.
Similar to other hormones, TSH is sent out in a daily rhythm, so the body has different levels at different times of the day. This can cause some confusion when it comes to lab testing.
It is important to remember that TSH runs opposite to thyroid hormone levels: this means that TSH is high when thyroid hormone is low, and TSH is low when thyroid function is high.
Knowing this means that the TSH level in the blood predicts Thyroid function.
If a client is monitoring their TSH levels they should be done 2-3 times a day at different times to ensure the numbers are accurate.
♦ TSH
♦ Free T3
♦ Free T4
I’ve seen incomplete tests many times, and then when antibodies come along the symptoms make sense.
♦ Reverse T3
♦ Total T4
♦ Total T3
♦ Thyroglobulin antibody
♦ Thyroid production antibody (TPO)
Plus is the best way to get the disease at an early stage and be treated correctly!
Many people suffer from Thyroid problems. It can be very frustrating but the good news is that it is reversible. With time, lifestyle changes, exercise, meditation, and food you can go back to being YOU!
There is no magic pill!
Removing The Labels And Limited Beliefs
How important it is to remove the labels and “put aside” our own beliefs (or those imposed)?
Years ago (many) I thought that physical activity wasn’t for me. Living abroad wasn’t for me and so many other limiting beliefs. The endless number of beliefs that imposed on me was holding me back from the life I wanted to live.
Thanks to the life that presented me with different opportunities, I was able to discover that being active keeps me alive and motivates me, that living abroad is like living at home (a new home), and that it is possible to achieve anything that you alow yourself to believe in.
Just like saying that you can’t cook… cooking isn’t a mystery, you just have to learn a couple of things. Yes, it may come easier to others but you can learn to cook.
Limiting beliefs are thoughts that subconsciously you believe to be the absolute truth. These tend to have a negative impact on your life. They hold you back and stop you from growing on a personal and even professional level.
Often limited beliefs are a defense mechanism to avoid certain emotions like anxiety, anger, and even sadness.
Since I came to this realization, from time to time, I practice “observing” myself and what labels I put on so that I can continue to choose and not live as if everything were imposed.
What labels do you wear? What labels do you choose?